Yes-DRC may be a concernRick Rule is a genious, no one is arguing with that. His track record speaks for itself. However, there are a few factors that can affect the supply of cobalt. First, why the Congo? It is cheapter to produce cobalt and the supply is already established with existing mines.
Okay, here are some potential factors that can choke off supply from the Congo, or seriously limit it in the short-term:
-company policy: Eg. TESLA at one time stated that it wanted to source lithium and cobalt from North American suppliers. What if this snow-balled and other companies got on board with this policy? Related to this is companies direct sourcing cobalt from producers and by-passing the middle men. If companies demand non-Congo sourced cobalt then this helps all non-Congo cobalt companiesl
-World opinion- U.N. sanctions or policies and politics - child labor and slave labor in DRC goes to producing cobalt and this cobalt may be used to fund wars. There is a parallel where world opinion went against "blood diamonds" and for a while, bloodless diamonds became the flavor of the month. Then came the bogus Kimberley Certification Process for bloodless diamonds. Hollywood stars began boycotting blood diamonds. These factors led to the Canadian diamond industry gaining a significant competitive edge for about 5 years or so. My African friends tell me that the Kimberley Process is a joke, by the way, it is very easy to circumvent, but that is besides the point, it gave Canadian diamond companies the edge for a while.
-so, we need bloodless cobalt. Be pro-active, e-mail TESLA, APPLE etc. and let your thoughts be known on this to these companies. They follow the money. I for one will not buy a TESLA vehicle unless I am sure there is no blood cobalt in the batteries. It happened with diamonds, and it can happen with cobalt.
cheers and GTLA